Split Screen
by rosewarren
Summary: A sequel to Brave New World. Post Journey's End, the Doctor must deal with Donna and the consequences of the genetic metacrisis.
1. Chapter 1

The Doctor stands at the console, one hand on the control panel. He's looking at the computer screen. Donna takes a deep breath and walks over to him.

He hasn't hit the controls to leave, even though the breach detector is threatening imminent closure. His attention is focused on the screen and the people on it.

Donna knows what all the notes on the Post-its say now. She can read and interpret the Gallifreyan symbols easily. The intricate equations for defying time and space, the reminders for milk, scribbled phone numbers for Martha and Sarah Jane and Jack. But her attention isn't on those, anymore than his is.

They're standing in the TARDIS, but they may as well be outside on Bad Wolf Bay. They stare for a moment at Rose and the Doctor in blue, wrapped up in each other's arms. Jackie is standing nearby, back turned to them and talking into her phone.

"I think they'll be happy together," the Doctor says, which is a massive understatement considering the way the two humans are desperately kissing.

"Yeah, I think so," Donna agrees cautiously. She thinks he may have had his hearts broken, but she's too afraid to ask.

The Doctor hits the controls and the TARDIS dematerializes. Donna's last glimpse of her friends is from that computer screen, as the other Doctor and Rose break apart and look in the direction where the TARDIS had been standing. Although they can't see her, she raises her hand in goodbye.

The Doctor takes a deep breath. "It's what I wanted for her," he says. "I know she didn't want to stay in one place, but this is better for her. One day she'll see that."

Donna rolls her eyes. "Yeah? You think so?"

"She chose, didn't she?" he snaps. "She chose him."

"Did you want her to choose him?" she asks cautiously, and the Doctor sighs.

"Yes. No."

"Well? Which is it?"

"If it hadn't been for him," the Doctor says thoughtfully, "I would have taken Rose and left that parallel world before Jackie knew what happened. As it is, he had to go someplace, and Rose needed someone..."

"Not someone. You. He's you and he isn't, and it may not work out between them." Even as she speaks Donna knows she is wrong. The look in the other Doctor's eye whenever he looked at Rose was unmistakable. If things don't work out, it won't be his fault.

"Anyway!" the Doctor says. "The breach between the universes is closed as of...now! Onwards and upwards, eh, Donna?" He's watching her rather more closely than he usually does, and Donna swipes at her nose to make sure there's not a smudge on it.

"Right! You know what? I thought we could try the planet Felspoon! Apparently it's got mountains that move. Can you imagine?"

"How do you know that?" the Doctor asks.

"It's in your head!" she replies cheerfully. "And if it's in your head, it's in mine!" She decides to take the controls herself - why let him have all the fun? She starts walking around the console, hitting things and bumping up levers.

"How does that feel, Donna?" The Doctor speaks slowly. "How does it feel to have it all in your head?"

"Oh, brilliant! Fantastic! Molto bene!" She beams at him.

"Yeah?"

"It's a great big universe, all packed into my brain!" Donna stares around the control room critically. "D'you know, you could fix that chameleon circuit if you really wanted to. Just try hotbinding the fragment-links and superceding the binary-" She comes to a sudden stop, her eyes widening in alarm over something.

The Doctor moves closer to her. "Donna?"

"Binary," she murmurs. "Binary, binary, binary – No! No! I'm fine."

The Doctor swallows. "Donna, listen to me –"

"My head," she whimpers, hands going to her temples. "Oh no. Oh no."

"Do you know what's happening?" he asks gently.

She closes her eyes. "Yeah."

"There's never been a human-Time Lord metacrisis before now," the Doctor says gently. "And you know why."

"Because there can't be," Donna whispers, eyes still closed. Her head hurts. Sensing the Doctor coming closer to her, she opens her eyes and jerks away from him. "I want to stay!"

"Donna. Look at me."

"I was gonna stay with you forever."

"I know." He smiles sadly. "I know you were."

"Rest of my life. Traveling in the TARDIS. The Doctor Donna. You or him, it didn't matter. I didn't care. I won't go back!"

"Donna. You know what I have to do." He sees the pain in her face and worries that time is running out.

She glares at him, anger flaring and overcoming the pain in her head. "Like hell!" And she grabs the mallet from the console and swings it at his head. He sees it coming but is so shocked that he just stands there, gaping like a fish. He goes from that to unconsciousness in seconds.

Donna tosses the mallet aside, steps over the Doctor's prone body, and starts working the controls.

"Over my dead body," she mutters, even though the pain in her head is so severe that she can barely see. She wants to lie down and cry. Maybe throw up.

She knows what she has to do. She knows what is still possible. Through the pain, she thinks of the location she needs to get to. She's just managed to program the TARDIS for that destination when the pain finally overtakes her and she passes out, landing beside the Doctor on the grated floor.

* * *

The Doctor wakes up as abruptly as he was knocked out. He's still in the TARDIS - not in the Time Vortex. Someplace else. Someplace...he starts to sit up and stops, surprised by the pain in his head. A sudden vision of Donna wielding a mallet swims into focus. Why would Donna be holding a mallet? That is completely unlike Donna. Wincing, he looks around the console room: Donna is lying on the floor. Awareness comes rushing back as he remembers the events leading to this moment.

"Donna?" He crawls over to her, afraid it's too late. "Donna!"

To his relief she stirs, groaning slightly. "Hurts," she whispers.

"Donna, look at me," the Doctor says urgently. "Look at me, Donna. Please."

She manages to open her eyes. "Ow," she whispers, and shuts them again.

"Okay, Donna, listen. I need to take out the part that's hurting. I just need-"

Donna startles him by sitting up. She crawls backwards, away from him.

"You stay away!" she snaps through the pain. "It's too late for that!"

He cannot - will not, lose another friend. "It's not too late. I can save you."

"You want to save me by killing my memories," she grits out. "No thank you." She pulls herself up and sways a bit, but damn it, she manages to stand on her own.

"Donna, you'll die!" The Doctor stands up as well, cursing the slight pain in his head.

Donna pulls the sonic screwdriver out of her trouser pocket and aims it at him. "Stay right there!"

"What - what are you doing with that?" he demands indignantly, searching through his pockets. "When did you get that?"

The pain in her head doesn't let Donna filter her thoughts. To hell with it, she decides. Enough with him getting his way all the time.

"I. Stole. It." She enunciates every word, keeping the sonic screwdriver pointed at him as she starts to shuffle to the doors of the TARDIS. "I was gonna give it to him."

"What? To him? Why?" There is no question of who "he" is, not anymore. The human Doctor has managed to leave an impression on them both that will take a long time to fade.

"Because we were gonna build a TARDIS!" she snaps. The pain is getting worse. "Build a TARDIS and run while you were busy with Rose! But then you were too chicken to say the words and she chose him. Bet you weren't counting on that, were you?"

"You were going to run away with him?" There are more urgent matters at hand, but the Doctor can't help fixating on that one.

"I know you love her!" Donna continues. "I can see inside your head! You let him have her because you were too afraid to say the words. The mighty Doctor, too afraid of three little words!"

He starts to walk to her, afraid that she will die right there and then. "Donna, please, please stand still. Let me help you."

She goes on as if she hadn't even heard him. "Well, guess what? _He_ wasn't afraid to say them. Because I'm not! I have feelings, Doctor! And emotions! Luckily I passed those on to him, and he knew just what to say to keep Rose with him. He _knows_ what Rose wanted to hear!"

The taunting tone in her voice can only be due to her headache, but the Doctor still doesn't know how to respond. It's as if Donna has been replaced by someone else.

"You were supposed to have Rose!" she shouts at him. "We were gonna _explore_. Have fun! Run for our lives. Don't worry," she adds, "we might have come to see you at Christmas."

There has simply been too much insanity happening lately. The Doctor tries to process this latest piece of information.

"And that's a mighty big _might_," Donna adds. "You were getting a bit too self-righteous for us, there at the end." She reaches the doors and opens them.

"Don't try to follow me!" she warns him. "Setting 3452B."

"You wouldn't!" he says indignantly.

"Ha! Wouldn't I?" And Donna disappears, being sure to seal the locks behind her.

He doesn't have a spare sonic screwdriver lying about, and it takes a few vital minutes to convince the TARDIS to open up and let him out. When the doors spring open he jumps through, looking around frantically.

Donna has passed out just steps away from the TARDIS, sprawled facedown on the floor. It's a very undignified pose, and she would hate to be seen that way. She's still alive - he can see her breathing.

The Doctor doesn't try to help her just yet. Setting 3452B is still in his mind, if he was to admit it, but that's not the reason he's not rushing to her side: a man and a woman are already kneeling over her.

The Doctor's gaze swings around the room. Recognition hits. Turning the other way, he scans the rest of the room. The person he's expecting to see is standing a few feet away, arms crossed.

"Hello, Doctor."


	2. Chapter 2

Captain Jack Harkness stands in the middle of the Torchwood Hub. His arms are crossed against his chest and his legs are braced far apart, as if he's getting ready for a confrontation. He looks just the same as the last time the Doctor saw him, of course, down to the blue shirt and dark trousers.

"Captain," the Doctor says tersely with a nod of acknowledgement. He walks around Jack and strides over to Donna. Kneeling down, he spots the sonic screwdriver a few inches away from Donna's outstretched hand. He tucks it back into his pocket and shoves aside Jack's Torchwood colleagues.

"Donna. Look at me." He's aware that his voice sounds harsh, but he's almost shaking with fear that it's too late. He sets his fingers on her temples, ready to delete those memories that her human brain cannot contain.

"She's in some sort of distress," the man kneeling beside him states. "She needs medical help."

"Ianto, isn't it?" the Doctor asks absently.

"Ianto Jones." Ianto can't help staring at the Doctor. He's heard so much about this almost-mythic person, and he knows first-hand what the Doctor is capable of achieving. He sneaks a look over at Jack, who has eyes only for the Doctor.

"What's happened?" Jack asks. He's relaxed his stance, but he's still full of tension. The Doctor doesn't just appear in The Hub for no reason. "Doctor? What's going on?"

There's no response, and Gwen and Ianto both look to Jack. He shakes his head briefly.

"He knows what he has to do."

The Doctor blocks out the sound of their voices and closes his eyes. Donna's brain is shutting down. She's absorbed his Time Lord mind into her consciousness, and no human being can live with all of that knowledge. If he doesn't remove it she'll die.

Donna knew this. Donna ran because of it. In order to save her, he will have to erase her memories of him and everything they've done together. He will lose her friendship, but she will have her life. It's a price he's willing to pay.

Donna isn't so willing.

Just as the Doctor gathers his thoughts and starts to focus, his hands are knocked away from Donna's head.

"You miserable bastard," she says in a weak whisper. "Don't you _dare_."

"Donna-"

Ignoring him, she looks around. "Ha! Torchwood. Knew I could fly the TARDIS better than you." She motions to Jack, though the movement sends hundreds of sharp tiny knives through her head.

"Captain Jack. Help me up, handsome."

Jack moves quickly to give her a hand. Ianto hurries to help her on the other side. Donna sways as she stands, leaning against Jack for balance. She wishes she wasn't in so much pain the first time she's in full bodily contact with him.

"You all right?" Jack asks, peering down at her.

"No, she's not all right!" the Doctor snaps. "She's got my mind inside her head and it's killing her."

"And what does he want to do about?" Donna asks the room in general in a mocking tone. "Give me a giant mind-wipe so I don't remember anything!"

Jack's Torchwood colleagues look appalled.

"Wipe your mind?" Gwen repeats. "Is that possible?"

"It's that or death," the Doctor says impatiently.

"Well, we can't let you die, Donna," Jack says, glancing at the Doctor.

"No one is gonna die!" Donna exclaims. "That's why I came here."

"And how is Torchwood going to help this?" the Doctor demands in exasperation. Honestly, the woman never changes, even on the brink of death with his entire mind burning her own mind up. He doesn't know whether to force her to let him take care of this or smile at her proudly. Even on the brink of death, Donna Noble is magnificent.

Donna takes a deep breath, trying to steady her thoughts against the onslaught of pain.

"There's a way," she manages. "Here. In the Torchwood archives, there's a device."

"Which one?" Jack demands.

"What can you possibly know about the Torchwood archives?" the Doctor demands at the same time.

"A red box," Donna says, eyes closed and still holding on to Jack. "45 centimeters wide, about the same tall. It's got...it's got black marks on it."

Jack turns to his fellow workers. "Ianto."

"Going now," Ianto says, and disappears.

"You," Donna says. "I need the Chameleon Arch." Her eyes are closed but she's pointing in the Doctor's general direction.

"You know it's attached to the TARDIS," the Doctor says, even as he heads for the ship. "Jack, help her on. What are you planning, Donna?"

She smiles faintly. "Not sure, to be honest. But we'd better hurry, because my head's on _fire_." She sways unsteadily, and Jack gives in and lifts her into his arms. Donna has a momentary mental image of the two of them, her swooning against his chest, posed like the cover of a romance novel. She smiles despite the massive headache.

"Take me, I'm yours," she murmurs.

Jack blinks, not sure he's heard her correctly. "What?"

"Into the TARDIS," the Doctor says impatiently.

Donna snuggles against Jack's chest. He smells divine.

"You have no romance in your soul," she tells the Doctor.

"I...what...you don't," the Doctor sputters.

"Here we go," Jack says, and walks inside the ship, shaking his head.

* * *

Gwen has joined Ianto in the depths of the Torchwood building.

"Have you found it?" she asks anxiously, pushing aside boxes and looking around.

"We have five things matching Donna's description on file," he responds. "Three so far have not been the exact match."

Jack's voice crackles through on their headsets.

"She says you'll know it when you see it. And hurry."

"Last one," Ianto says nervously, unlocking a vault. He reaches in and pulls out the contents. He and Gwen stare down at it.

"Size is right," she murmurs.

"Red with black markings," he agrees. "This is it. Let's go."

The Doctor meets them at the TARDIS doors and takes the box.

"What's in it?" he asks.

"We didn't look," Ianto answers.

"Just as well. Could be anything. You two stay out here," the Doctor commands when Ianto and Gwen look like they'd like to join the others in the TARDIS. "I don't know what's going to happen. I can regenerate and Jack would survive, but you two wouldn't be so lucky if something explodes."

"Something?" Gwen questions.

"Explodes?" Ianto says sharply, trying to look beyond the Doctor into the TARDIS.

The Doctor looks uncomfortable. "Or someone. That never happens. Well, almost never. On a rare occasion, someone in the wrong place emitting the wrong sort of frequency might -" He abruptly breaks off as he realizes his words are not precisely what people want to hear at a time like this. "Be back as soon as we're done!" He promises insincerely, and the TARDIS vanishes.

"Where are we going?" Jack asks as he helps Donna sit down on the jump seat. "What did you tell Ianto and Gwen?"

The Doctor sets the box down. "Don't worry. We'll be right back. Told them not to worry."

"As if you could find the right time and place again," Donna murmurs.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that. All right! Chameleon Arch is down! What's in the box?"

Donna shrugs. "Don't know."

"You don't?" the men chorus.

"I saw it. In my head," she explains.

"What is it?" the Doctor asks.

"I don't know! I just saw it and knew that that's what I need."

"You just saw it," the Doctor states. "In your head."

"Yeah." Donna sounds like seeing images of unknown objects is a perfectly normal occurrence. In fact, it's a great deal more normal than having her own mind go up in flames, but you can't always choose the strange phenomenon that happens to you.

"Could it be something from your home planet?" Jack asks the Doctor.

The Doctor is studying the box. "I would know if it was. It doesn't look like anything I've ever seen."

"How else would she know about it, though? If your mind is in there with hers, doesn't she know everything you do?"

"In theory, yes."

"Oh, in practice, too," Donna can't help assuring them both. "You would not _believe_ some of the stuff he's been carrying around. I had no idea."

"Oh, yeah?" Jack asks with a grin.

The Doctor ignores them and opens the box. Inside is a complicated metal device.

"That came through the Rift," Jack says in recognition. "We studied it for a while but we couldn't determine anything."

The Doctor nods absently and puts on his glasses. "Was it emitting any radiation or energy?" He points the sonic screwdriver at it.

"None that we could measure." Jack and the Doctor hunch over the box, apparently fascinated by the mystery it presents.

"Get the Arch," Donna snaps, "if you're both done talking while my brain boils!"

Jack jumps. The Doctor obeys and pulls the Chameleon Arch down.

"All right," he says. "Now what?" His voice is calm but he's not feeling calm at all. He's worried and nervous and afraid that Donna will die before she can do what she thinks will save her life.

"Put it on my head. My head. My head. My head." Donna winces as she tries to control her speech.

"Donna, are you okay?" Jack asks anxiously.

"Fine! Fine, fine, fine."

The Doctor tries to touch Donna's face. "Let me-"

"Do it," Donna manages to whisper. "Please."

"Donna, this will make you forget - this will be worse than what I would do-"

Donna makes a last effort to get control of herself. By sheer force of will, she gets the words out. "Stuff it, spaceman! Put it on. Now take that thing and attach it to the side wires on the Arch."

"What?"

"Do it!" she screeches.

Swallowing, he does. "We don't have time to invent a story to explain your memory loss, what's happened -"

"We don't need a cover story. It won't work the usual way. Flick on the Arch. Now turn the switch on the box."

"We don't know what this is, Donna," Jack says urgently. "We can't just play around with alien tech."

The Doctor glances at him. "I've never heard that attitude from you before."

"Alien tech is one thing," Jack says impatiently. "Unknown alien tech is something else."

"For the love of - do it!" And Donna turns on the Arch herself. She screams, and Jack and the Doctor stand there, transfixed. Sparks fly from the alien red box, travel down the wires and into the Chameleon Arch. Donna's eyes are screwed shut, her mouth open in a grimace of extreme pain.

"It's killing her!" Jack protests.

"Don't touch her now! The process has started." The Doctor watches in agony. His way of helping Donna would have robbed her of her memories, but she would have remained alive. He's not at all sure what will happen here with this foreign device.

All they can do is stand there, waiting for the sparks to stop flying. Finally Donna falls back in her seat, unconscious. The Doctor tentatively removes the Arch from her head and removes the wires that are attaching it to the box.

"Now what?" Jack asks with his eyes fixed on Donna. His voice is hushed, like he's at the side of someone's deathbed.

The Doctor quickly scans her with the sonic screwdriver. She's alive and breathing, vitals registering as normal.

"Now we wait," he says finally. "We'll know when she wakes up."

"We'll know what?"

"If it worked."

"What if it didn't?"

The Doctor frowns. "Help me move her into the infirmary," is all he says.

* * *

Donna is unconscious for a long time. Jack paces around the console room, going into the infirmary to check on Donna every now and then.

"Shouldn't we be in there with her?" he asks.

The Doctor makes a small sound of denial. "Nothing to be done until she wakes up. The TARDIS is letting me know how she's doing."

"I know that," Jack says impatiently, and continues to pace around.

The Doctor uses the time to try and trace the origins of the red box. The TARDIS computer has a far greater store of information than the Torchwood computers could ever hope to.

"I don't believe it," the Doctor says, an hour after Donna went unconscious. "I found it. This really is alien technology."

Jack jumps to his side to peer at the computer. "Was there ever a doubt?" The TARDIS declines to translate for him, so all he sees are the circles and swirls of the Doctor's native language.

"What is it?" he asks.

"This is a memory regulator," the Doctor says. "It works much like the Arch, only not as radical. The Arch is capable to turning a Time Lord into a human being. It changes every cell in the body. The only problem is that it takes all memories of being a Time Lord along with it. The regulator appears to remove only the memories you want removed. It leaves the structure of the cells intact."

"You're kidding." Jack eyes the device with a newfound respect. "You get to choose what you want to forget? People would kill for something like that."

"Yes, wouldn't they?" The Doctor fixes Jack with a stern look. "It's too dangerous to stay at Torchwood. I'll keep it here."

"Isn't it too dangerous for you?" Jack asks pointedly.

The Doctor's mouth tightens. "I have far too many memories that would need to be removed. No device is that powerful."

"That's not what I meant," Jack says quickly. He'd grown up thinking the Time War was just an ancient myth until he'd met the Doctor. Since reading all the information Torchwood had collected on the Time Lord, he's gained a newfound respect for what the Doctor has done, and he knows how much the past pains him.

"It's okay. Tell me, Jack, how long has it been since we last saw each other?"

Jack is puzzled by the question. "Since...the last time? Since we saved the universe and towed the Earth home?"

"Yes. That time."

Jack thinks a moment and shrugs. "About a year."

"A year," the Doctor murmurs. "It was only moments for us."

Jack nods, glancing around the TARDIS. "Since the last time I saw you? Were you two alone?"

The Doctor knows what he is asking, and he clears his throat and nods. "It's just Donna and me. We left Rose behind with her mother on the parallel world."

"She didn't look like someone who was planning to stay behind," Jack says cautiously. "It looked like she was here to stay. I mean, she did cross across several parallel dimensions to find you." He raises his hands off the look the Doctor gives him. "Hey, I'm just sayin'."

"She had other incentives this time," the Doctor says shortly, and Jack puts two and two together.

"She stayed with her family?"

"Yes."

"And...the other Doctor?" Jack has not forgotten the other Doctor. The image of two Doctors at once has stayed with him.

"He's human," the Doctor says shortly. "She wanted to stay with him."

"Really stay with him, or stay with him like I wanted to stay on the Game Station?" Jack has great and profound love and respect for the Doctor, but some things just need to be said.

The Doctor glares at him, but Jack stands his ground.

"I love Rose, too," he states. "I deserve to know."

The Doctor runs a hand through his hair. "I gave her a choice. She chose. She'll be happy."

Jack looks down at the floor, unable to handle the pain he saw flashing in the Doctor's face. "I'm sorry."

"She'll be safe and happy," the Doctor says again. "That's what I want for her."

Jack doesn't know what to say to that. He never would have thought that Rose would choose someone else over the Doctor, but he hadn't seen Rose in a long time before she came back to this world. Maybe being on a parallel world has changed her more than he'd thought.

Just then the computer beeps an alert, and on the monitor that shows them the infirmary, Donna stirs on the bed. Their attention quickly swings to her and both men rush to her side.

"Did it work?" Donna asks in a weak whisper as the Doctor checks the various monitors.

The Doctor is rather annoyed with the question. "You tell me. I still don't understand what you were doing."

Donna struggles to sit up and appears to be thinking of something complex.

"Go on. Ask me a question."

"Who's the Prime Minister?" Jack says promptly.

"Something _useful_. And difficult."

"What is the chemical composition of hafnium?" the Doctor asks.

"Come on! Something harder than that! It's..." And Donna is stumped. All of the Time Lord memories and knowledge she once had are gone. She can no longer access them.

"I don't know," she says. "I don't know." She looks up at the Doctor, who is watching her very closely.

"You don't remember? You really don't know?"

"I don't even know what hafnium _is_. I know that Brad and Angelina are still together. I know that the new Harry Potter movie is coming out soon. And Charles is married to Camilla."

"Yeah, but anything useful?" Jack can't help asking.

But the Doctor is grinning ear to ear. "Donna, you're back!"

"I told you I knew what to do!" Donna says triumphantly.

"Yes, but how did you know the regulator was at Torchwood?"

"I ...don't know. I saw it. In my head. And I knew what to do with it."

Jack is thinking hard. "I had your hand in a jar for years," he says slowly. "It was on my desk. I kept the regulator right next to it for weeks while we tried to work out what it was."

Donna starts to laugh. "Well, that's silly."

"What is?" the Doctor asks.

"Come on! The hand on the desk. Your hand. Part of me went into that part of you and grew another you. He had your memories and something from me. But how could I get anything from him?"

"You couldn't. It's not possible."

"And yet how else would she know about that device?" Jack asks.

"He knew," Donna says. "Somehow he knew what that was, and he remembered it."

"_He_ started out as a _hand_," the Doctor says. "_My_ hand. It could not have possibly absorbed any information at all. It wasn't alive."

"Well, I kept it alive," Jack disagrees. "In that solution. Not alive alive, but it would have decomposed, wouldn't it? The tissue would have been destroyed."

"You two are insane," the Doctor says positively. "Absolutely insane."

"What else could it have been?" Donna bursts out. "Tell us, then."

"I...it... oh, for the love of-" The Doctor throws up his hands and walks away.

"Maybe it wasn't just part of me that went into that hand to create the human Doctor," Donna whispers. "Maybe part of that hand came into me."

"I think he's figured that out," Jack agrees. "You doing anything for dinner? I know this great little cafe on Zebulon Nine."


	3. Chapter 3

The cafe on Zebulon Nine is _brilliant_. Donna has never had such tasty little appetizers before. And the liquor being served is fabulous; just the thing for celebrating a brush with death.

The Doctor doesn't drink much alcohol as a rule, not having the head for it. He drinks the local version of water with a twist of lemon, and appears perfectly happy with that.

Jack is capable of ingesting huge amounts of alcohol, and Donna is pleased to see that it loosens his tongue a bit. A relaxed Captain Jack says and does things that he wouldn't normally do, like challenge the Doctor just a bit.

"So Rose stayed behind," Jack says after his second glass of something alarmingly yellow. "Seems I'm always asking you where she is when we meet these days."

The Doctor stifles a sigh. Jack is entitled to a better answer than what he's already told him about Rose.

"She stayed behind," the Doctor says. "Back with her family."

"Okay," Jack says slowly. He's clearly thinking this one through, although why he feels he needs to do that the Doctor can't quite understand.

"Rose is safe," the Doctor reminds him. "No more darkness coming through. The parallel world is fine."

"Okay. She's safe and she's happy, then. Right?"

The Doctor shrugs uncomfortably. "It's been about a year since we stopped Davros. That means that two or three years have passed for them."

"So either she's happy or she's miserable," Jack concludes, and then smiles apologetically at the look the Doctor gives him. "Sorry."

"Rose will be happy wherever she is. I gave her a choice and she made it." What he has to say next is very hard to get out, but he manages. "He loves her. It will be all right."

"He does," Donna says suddenly. "He loves Rose with all his heart and he'll do anything to make her happy." She's sipping a blue drink through a straw, and all of a sudden comes to the end of her drink. "Oi!" she calls to a waiter. "Can I have another one of these?" She turns back to her companions.

"He's human now, and he loves Rose, and if they're not happy it won't be his fault, yeah? I saw the way he was looking at her."

"How was he looking at her?" the Doctor demands without thinking.

"How?" she repeats. "Well, just like you used to look at her, I bet. Only more so, probably. If I had to guess, which I do, 'cos I never really saw you two back when you were together and happy and together."

Jack takes the new drink away from the waiter before she can take it. "I think you've had enough," he comments, starting to take a sip of it himself.

"I don't think so!" Donna snaps, and snatches it back. Blue liquid sloshes all over the table. "And don't change the subject if it's one I'm enjoying."

"Oh, I wasn't changing the subject," Jack says easily. "I agree with you. The way the Doctor used to look at Rose when he thought I wasn't looking...I could tell you stories."

"Yeah?" she asks interestedly, and the Doctor breaks in on this charming train of thought.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we can consider this topic closed now. Permanently."

"Are you okay with that?" Jack asks, disregarding his request. "I mean, he was you and you were him, to a point."

"Captain, you know what it's like to live forever. How many friends have you lost, just since you came to Torchwood? How many loved ones have you said goodbye to?"

Jack stares out the window, a slight frown on his face. "Too many."

"Too many," the Doctor echoes. "Too, too many. And how many more will you have to say goodbye to?"

Jack looks at him sharply, and the Doctor knows he's just hit a raw nerve.

"I wasn't going to go through that with Rose," the Doctor says. "She deserves more. Better to lose her than to have that happen."

"You've always loved her." Jack states this as a long-accepted fact. "Knew it from the minute she introduced us. Never stopped believing it."

The Doctor nods. "It's better this way, Jack."

"Yeah." But Jack doesn't sound like he's quite convinced. He looks around for his coat. "How about you bring me back now? My team is probably waiting for me."

Donna laughs softly into her glass. "Better hope you get there within the correct year."

Jack grins. "Been there, done that."

* * *

Jack pauses just inside the TARDIS doors. "Sure you don't want to come in for some tea?" he asks.

"We should get going," the Doctor says.

"Don't be a stranger," Jack says to him.

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it," the Doctor assures him.

They both know he's lying.

"Hang on," Donna says suddenly, peering at Jack. "Never thought ol' Captain Jack would be so eager to leave the TARDIS. Is there something going on at Torchwood you don't want us to know about?"

Jack rolls his eyes. "I couldn't keep a secret from him if I tried."

"No, it's true," the Doctor says, smiling modestly.

Donna is running through the conversation they had at the restaurant. Granted, she was in an alcohol fog for much of it, but she remembers some stuff.

"Don't be afraid, Jack," she says. "Even though you may lose them. Don't be afraid to live in the moment and love them right now."

Jack looks startled and maybe a little bit spooked. "What are you talking about?"

The flash of insight is gone as quickly as it came. Donna shrugs.

"Dunno. Take care, yeah?"

"Yeah." Jack starts to say something more, then stops. He glances at the doors, where Torchwood is waiting for him.

"See you around, Doctor," he says, and heads out to his people.

"What are you going on about?" the Doctor asks the moment the doors are closed again. "Why are you going all fortune teller on poor Jack?"

Donna shrugs. "It just seemed like there was something he wasn't saying. All that talk about watching people outlive you and leave you, it looked like he took it personally."

For once the Doctor has nothing to say. Jack's life is not something he's ever thought about. He's never thought about how Jack got off of the Game Station, or what life at Torchwood was like for him, or who he may have loved and lost these past 150-odd years.

He feels very, very bad at that realization. Has he really gotten so used to companions coming and going that he can be so callous?

Donna's voice breaks him out of his thoughts.

"You gonna start this thing, or are we gonna park at The Hub from now on?"

"Starting her now," the Doctor says.

* * *

"It's you and me, spaceman." Donna smiles. "All back to normal." They're in the Time Vortex, and she's feeling happier than she has in a long while now.

"Are you sure?" He's examined her several times, never quite convinced that she is, in fact, back to normal. Better than normal, actually. The Chameleon Arch turned her back to fully human, the memory regulator removed the Time Lord knowledge, and yet there is something different about Donna. She has a glow in her eyes and a calmness she didn't have before.

"I'm sure. I've seen things, Doctor. I know I don't remember them, and of course it's worth it to, you know, be able to keep breathing, but I know what's _possible_ now. I get to stay with you."

"That's a good thing?" Okay, maybe he's fishing for compliments now, but that's not a bad thing, is it?

"Oh, it's a very good thing," she assures him. "An absolutely brilliant thing!"

He smiles at her, rather pleased to hear her say so. "Good."

"You know what I want to do?" Donna asks him. "Right now, what I want to do this minute?"

"What?" the Doctor asks, bracing himself for a request to visit a beauty spa or a pleasure planet with a water park.

"I want to go someplace that I've never been before. Someplace amazing."

He nods cautiously. "As it happens, there is this city on the top of a mountain in the Andromeda Galaxy. Every year the twin suns revolve around the planet and exchange orbits. North and south to east and west. Massive celebrations."

"Well, that sounds perfect, then!" Donna settles in the chair. "We just need to make a quick stop home."

"A stop home? What for?" he protests.

"Well, to see my mum and granddad, you dumbo! I haven't seen them since before all the madness happened."

"I'm sure they're fine," the Doctor mutters, just like a pouting child.

"Well, I need to see them," she says firmly. "And then we can go."

* * *

It's quite a long time before the residual effects from Donna's brief reign as a Time Lady are known. Being the first product of a Time Lord - human genetic meta-crisis, there's no level of normal for her to follow. She doesn't know what's normal and what isn't. Once those memories were gone, she assumed that was all there was to it. Apart from feeling sad that she would never get to see Gallifrey, Donna adjusted quite well.

There were more travels to complete. Wrongs to right, upheavals to calm. They were imprisoned once or twice, and their lives were threatened more than several times.

They ran into Jack and his Torchwood team now and again, back on Earth when he brought Donna home to visit her family.

Time passed on the TARDIS without either one really noticing. Donna was having the time of her life, and the Doctor was, too.

And then Wilf passed away. Donna's grief was tempered by the knowledge that he'd lived a full life, and that he'd been so proud of her for following her dreams at last. Visits home were made more often, certainly more often than the Doctor would have liked.

Sylvia grew older, met a nice older gentleman and happily lived in sin, as she put it, for quite a few years, much to Donna's horror and embarrassment and the Doctor's absolute glee.

"I can't believe it!" Donna wails, throwing herself on the couch and covering her face with a blanket.

"Aw, what's the big deal?" the Doctor asks, amusement in his voice. "Aren't you happy for your mum?"

"No!"

"She's got a friend," he continues. "She seems much happier. More...I don't know, _relaxed_."

She sits up and throws a pillow at him, knocking him on the head.

"Don't you talk about my mother and _relaxation_ in the same breath!"

"She's certainly been friendlier to me, is all I'm saying." The Doctor leans back in one of Sylvia's special company chairs. He shoves his hands in his trouser pockets and smiles happily. "A happy Sylvia is not a nagging Sylvia. I haven't been slapped or threatened in ages."

"Shut. Up."

"It's not like he asked you to call him dad or anything." The Doctor really can't help himself. Not that he's trying.

"Stop it!" Donna shrieks.

Sylvia and her friend never do get married, but continue to shack up, as Donna persists in calling it, until Sylvia's friend passes away from a heart attack.

Sylvia passes away soon after, and it's at that point that Donna and the Doctor face what they've never really addressed before.

Time is passing, but Donna looks the same as the day her original memories were restored. Living on the TARDIS has dulled her awareness of the passage of time, but now it can't be ignored any longer.

"Do I look older to you?" she asks one morning. The Doctor is in the TARDIS kitchen, eating toast and jam and hot tea.

He looks up, swallows slowly, and frowns.

"This a trick?"

"Seriously." Donna sits down across from him. "How do I look?"

He takes in her hairstyle, loose around her shoulders as always. "You look very nice," he offers. "Er...is that top new?"

"Never mind my clothes," she says sternly. "How do I look? Do I look the same? Older?"

He puts his glasses on and appears to be studying her closely.

"You know, you don't," he says in surprise. "How long have we been together now?"

She really doesn't want to face the answer. "Twenty years," she admits.

"Twenty years," the Doctor murmurs. "And you don't look a day over-" He stops suddenly and takes a swig of his tea. "You don't look any different," he states.

"I knew my granddad was getting older," Donna murmurs. "And when Mum and Harry died...well, that's normal, isn't it? Your parents die before you do." She frowns and takes a bite of the Doctor's toast. "And Gwen started having kids, and they've been getting older. I noticed, but I didn't _notice_. I mean, Jack still looks the same!"

"If you're holding up Jack as some sort of proof, you're in the totally wrong alley," the Doctor informs her. "He's immortal, remember? He'll never look any different."

"I don't either, though do I?" she asks. "No wrinkles, no grey hairs."

The Doctor nods admiringly at this. Her hair is still as lovely and thick and ginger as the first day they met.

"No sagging skin," she continues. "Or weight gain. Even my boobs are still nice and tight." She glances down at her chest and bounces slightly on her heels, making the Doctor blush furiously. Not that he's noticed anything like that, of course.

"What am I?" she whispers. "Doctor, what happened to me? I didn't look into the heart of the TARDIS. No one brought me back from the dead. What happened?"

"I don't know." The Doctor frowns thoughtfully. "You seem to be remaining the same."

"I'm not immortal. I'm not a Time Lord. But I'm not getting any older. So what happened?"

The Doctor tries to look for an explanation and comes up with...nothing. "I don't know. We can try and find out."

Donna thinks about this. There are tests that could be done, of course. Experiments. Inquiries. There may be a reason why this has happened to her. There might be a way to fix it. Cure her. Reverse the process.

Bring her up to her normal, proper age. With accompanying wrinkles, grey hair, weight gain and sagging bust.

Good grief, she thinks.

"You know what?" she asks, standing up. "I think we're fine for now. No reason to get carried away, is there? Lots of time to look into things later on. Shall we go over to that planet Mondavi now? That price on our heads ought to be expired by now."

There are a hundred reasons why they should try and find out what's happened to her. The wise thing would be to start looking into it right now.

The Doctor stands up and smiles, throwing caution and wisdom to the winds.

"Let's go. Mondavi's lovely this time of year."


End file.
